Best Rock Bar New York 2011 - Motor City Bar - CLOSED

So many life-changing things hail from Detroit: Motown, The White Stripes, Insane Clown Posse, this Lower East Side's bar Wayne County spirit. A brick-walled rock-and-roll dive with a seedy-mechanic theme, Motor City Bar has Ford-tribute decor, hubcaps on the walls, a car-seat bench, and an affinity for the Red Wings. Almost as admirable as the cash-only joint's stiff drinks and kick-ass hometown allegiance is that the Ludlow spot maintains one of the more genius bar-family inventions: a whiteboard of names that lists drinks bought for absent regulars. Heard your pal Billy got dumped? Leave him a Jameson on the board! In the post-Mars-Bar era, there aren't all that many LES holes where one should still be terrified of the bathroom. Mercifully, one of the few throwback exceptions is Motor City. 127 Ludlow Street, 212-358-1595, motorcitybar.com (10002)